Trenton Farmers Market welcomes a new manager

By Dan Aubrey

New Trenton Farmers Market manager Bill Kearney is out to get the word out that the historic market is still doing what it did from the start — moving produce.

Kearney took the position as the seventh TFM manager in February, 2023. He is also the fourth in the past five years. Longtime manager Jack Ball retired in 2019. He was followed by Chris Cirkus, who still manages the West Windsor Farmers Market (2019-22), and then former Capital City Farm organizer Ludovic Andre, who left earlier this year.

Now working the produce stands and glad-handing patrons, Kearney recently talked turkey about the marketing the market.

“The Trenton Farmers Market operates pretty much like a nonprofit,” he says, getting straight to business. But “it’s a co-op. It’s run by a board of farmers... It has a president and four members. We keep it operating so local farmers can bring their produce to the market.”

Those farms include Cedarville, East Windsor; Corner Copia, Jacksonville;

Cranberry Hall, Cookstown; Pinelands, Hammonton; Russo’s Fruit and Vegetables, Tabernacle; Terhune Orchards; and Zell’s in Hillsborough.

Calling the market “one of the oldest and largest in New Jersey,” Kearney quickly sketches its history.

It started in the early 1900s on an area near the Lower Trenton Bridge — aka Trenton Makes Bridge — to service both Trenton residents and bridge users.

When discussions about creating a highway along the river started, the Trenton Market Growers Cooperative Association was formed. It then purchased its Spruce Street property on the Trenton-Lawrence Township line in 1939.

The new market opened in 1948 and operated in a combination of buildings and outdoor stands.

After one of the three main structures burned down, the remaining two were reconfigured into the cross-like structure that generations have come to know.

Kearney says his current “responsibility is vendor relations and to give them everything they need to operate.”

That includes including addressing roof leaks, garbage, and legalities related to insurance and proper registration with federal and state agencies, including the NJ Department of Heath.

“It all provides confidence and a higher level of vendor, people who are serious about their business,” he says.

Complimenting the managers who went before him and “did great things” to keep the market going for nearly a century, he notes that his role is to update to a new era.

That includes overseeing a conversion of the light to LED to enhance look of products and bring utility costs down, improving signage (including the large red electric roof sign), and addressing traffic needs.

“The state and county are going to put in a rotary, and we’re working with the DOT,” he says.

Kearney says a good deal of his job is community relations and awareness.

The Trenton “Island” resident originally from Yardley—where his dad worked for Fairless Steel and his mom taught music—also plans to use his past 25 years of various experience in the effort.

“I am an experienced marketing, advertising, and consultative sales executive with exceptional strategic, creative and sales presentation skills,” he states on his Linkedin page. “I have extensive knowledge of, and experience in media, public relations and business development garnered from varied positions in sales, marketing, and advertising.

That translates into ad sales for Calkins Media, former owner of the Bucks County and Burlington County Times, director of strategic planning and development for Oxford Communications; a marketing director for TV Guide/TVSM Inc; and others.

In addition to work with TV Guide, the 1986 College of New Jersey graduate says he was also involved with ads and sales for Rita’s Water Ice and Toll Brothers. He is also an administrator for Trenton Orbit, a local Facebook community news site.

Now focusing on the TFM, Kearney says, “I used to handle Bucks Country tourism, and I was aware of destination marketing. We’re not just selling produce but a social experience. We’re trying to leverage that.”

One of the ways is to remind the community that it is a “local legacy destination.”

To make the point, he says, “I hope to do what some call hokey, old-fashioned attraction, like guess how many blueberries are in the container and pumpkin painting.”

Yet to do so, he says he is using some new-fashioned approaches to attract patrons who stopped shopping there during COVID or started going to other fresh produce venues.

“We started or upped our social media,” Kearney says, adding that every Saturday they add something so “people get a taste of the market.”

Pressing his marketing skills, Kearney says, “It’s great opportunity for engagement. People want to be part of the brand. People say, ‘I used to come here

20 years ago. I am here again because my children saw it on social media.’” He says he has also introduced radio ads.

While there is no current hard statistical data, Kearney understands that the market needs to attract a variety of ages and populations to sustain its future.

He then provides a quick overview of offerings, including Polish and Amish stands with various meats and deli offerings, two vegetarian restaurants, a punkrock venue, and Haitian and Spanish merchants. “There is a lot diversity in our market,” he says.

But that is just the current starting point. And while Kearney says he has also started to provide more seating to accommodate those who need to rest, there are other challenges.

One is adding additional bathrooms. At this time, there is only one station.

But another more important one is maintaining and attracting a variety of quality vendors and developing relationships with those looking to incubate a business while keeping as low as $58 a day for a table.

“I’m trying to develop a culture of ‘we’re-all-in-this together.’ And what are you doing for your business?”

He also would like to provide a place to attract more women who “control 80 percent of U.S. decision spending,” he says.

Yet the market’s potential secret sauce for success isn’t that much of a secret. “We know we’re a farmers market first and foremost. It isn’t a corporation or an office. It is a place where people go to forget the rest of life.”

Trenton Farmers Market, 960 Spruce Street, Lawrence. Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. thetrentonfarmersmarket.com.